Family killer Brian Britton to get new parole hearing next week

Brian Britton is serving 25 to life in prison for the 1989 murder of his parents and little brother, and the shooting of his sister, in their Town of Poughkeepsie home.
Wochit

Brian Britton is scheduled to appear before the New York State Parole Board the week of November 13 to request early release from prison. He is serving 25 years to life at Washington Correctional Facility in Comstock for the murder of his father Dennis Britton, mother Marlene, and then 8-year-old brother Jason as well as the attempted murder of Shafer when she was 18.(Photo11: Courtesy photo)

On what would have been her little brother Jason's birthday — Oct. 19 — Sherry Shafer got a phone call.

It was the state Office of Victim Assistance.

At first, Shafer thought the agency was calling to tell her that Brian Britton, her other brother, had died in prison.

"That would be a blessing," Shafer remembers thinking. "Because I wouldn't have to worry anymore."

But the office had another reason for the call.

Britton, 46, had written Shafer a letter of apology, nearly three decades after murdering their mother, father and 8-year-old Jason in their Town of Poughkeepsie home.

Shafer, whom Britton shot twice, was the sole survivor.

Brian Britton, 16, at his arraignment in April 1989.(Photo11: archive photo)

"He said he was sorry, but is insistent on telling lies" about the circumstances of the murders, said Shafer, who believes Britton only wrote the apology letter to appease the parole board.

Britton, a Fishkill Correctional Facility inmate, is serving a 25-to-life sentence for the triple murder and the attempted murder of Shafer.

Next week, he is scheduled to again face the state parole board.

Parole hearings will be held during the week of Nov. 12 for every Fishkill Correctional prisoner who is eligible, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

The exact date on which Britton's hearing will be held is unknown.

Shafer said she fears for her own safety, and that of her children, if Britton is released from prison.

Britton was 16 when he shot and killed his father, Dennis Britton, mother, Marlene, and brother in March 1989. He also shot Shafer, who was 18 at the time.

Shafer is worried that parole board commissioners are sympathetic toward Britton, based on comments made at his November 2017 hearing.

"Hopefully, they are smart and deny him," Shafer said.

Britton has been denied parole multiple times.

State law requires the parole board reconsider an inmate for release no longer than two years after the person is denied. But the board is not required to wait two years.

The panel that oversaw his 2017 hearing was made up of three state Parole Board commissioners; there are 12 in total. A transcript of the hearing minutes show that Commissioner Carol Shapiro asked the questions.

Shapiro went so far as to suggest that arguments Britton had with his mother about a girlfriend may have been a "mitigating" factor in the murders.

Paramedics rush 18-year-old Sherry Britton from her home at Van Wagner Road in the Town of Poughkeepsie after the shootings March 22, 1989.(Photo11: archive photo)

In denying him parole last year, the panel told Britton to use the time until his next hearing to "shore up firm release plans and maintain your clean disciplinary record."

Rotating teams of commissioners conduct the parole hearings with prisoners, and it's unclear who will interview Britton this time.

In Britton's letter, "he came out and said he had done the crime, that he wishes me happiness and everything in the future, and he wishes he and I could...be able to speak," Shafer said.

Shafer has no desire to speak to Britton.

A Change.org petition she started to keep him in prison had garnered more than 6,250 signatures as of Wednesday.

After a hearing, the parole board has two weeks to make a decision.

But "more times than not," the board decides right away, said Patrick Bailey, a department spokesman.

The inmate is notified of the decision first, followed by registered victims, then the public.

Had the case gone to trial and Britton was convicted, he faced possible consecutive sentences for the three murders and an assault charge from shooting Shafer. Instead, he agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a single sentence of 25- to- life.

Britton was transferred to Fishkill Correctional from another state prison in July.

*Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the state Office of Victim Assistance.